Gonna have a crack with pots for the first time this season. When you talk about the 'whites' run, when is that usually? Is it after a certain moon phase in November etc?
and wont catch many unless you have a craypot winch , need to bring the pots up with speed otherwise they will float out .....my limited experience has been jumbos will be berried till early January... can see 1 month of envy & then game on.
white run normaly around start off December,should be great year for potters and divers,numbers should be up,should never envy anyone old saulty just do it
divers always do well for the first few months. as the lads have said, when the whites "run" a few weeks before Christmas is when the potters usually go well, and theyre usually in really close by then too, meaning even guys with dinghies can grab a feed.
Saulty, most jumbos I see when diving aren't berried (except around rotto, where there's heaps), and I've never even heard of crays "floating" out of a cray pot, and ive pulled my share.
pots coming up slow &vertical allows crays to walk out through the pot neck..my experience with jumbos has been tar spot & berried so i dont bother till late March -April , and as for you little Johnny yes i do envy because like you keep reminding me i am old & i cant / dont dive
Was spewing last year, we pulled our pot that was in 22m and there was the biggest fricken jumbo in there I've ever seen but alas she was full of berrys. Mind you there were two half that size that were still huge. Will give that spot a go again this year.
may-october is the best time to fish inside...best pot in the 2 weeks i fished in october last season came up with 26 size on a single day pull. best pot i had in june this year was 21 size on a single day pull with the same pop constantly pulling 10-16 size a day of the same ledge
You may find the location you fish is a bit more south, and having fished for them for some 35 years, I can ashore you that most will get their crays when the whites run.
As for your comment about no idea, you sound like one of these. you will get pockets of res reds, but if you follow the whites you will kill it.
Dhuvinile: "may-october is the best time to fish inside...best pot in the 2 weeks i fished in october last season came up with 26 size on a single day pull."
Have never fished (pots) for lobster b4 so just asking the question as I really have no idea.
didn't last season start November ?
or are you fishing in a different region or something?
Dhuvinile :I just thought the season was closed for most of the timeframe you put in your post....am I missing something?
Correct me if I am wrong, I think last season opened mid October, as it will again this year. But yes most of the period quoted is outside of the western bio region season (15 Oct - 30 Jun I believe)
Little spot in the 30s out of hillarys late november to christmas. 3/4 size pots with no winch but killed it on the whites 20 odd crays in each pot. Mostly whites with the odd buried female thrown in. Pulled the pin when they stopped walking, were still getting half dozen big reds but the pots were getting too danm heavy haha
Cray season started last season 15th October and finished 30th June.
I know quiet a few of the local professional cray boats and whilst they obviously do very well on the whites because they march i have been told that the best time for them to fish is from may-october due to the fact that the crays are in close, in large numbers. This lowers the running costs of the boat also.
Due to the professionals now fishing Quotas they can fish all year round until the quota allocated to them is full.
The best boat i head of last season in the whites was 1300kg on a single day pull. best boat in the reds was 2 consective days 1200kg and 1360kg on both single day pulls.
Personally i would much rather travel 1NM to get my 24 boat limit of reds per day as opposed to travelling 8-10NM to get my 24 boat limit in the whites. The reason i have to travel so far in the whites is because there is alot of weed where i am based out of opposed to sand which is where you will catch and hold the crays. Yes you will catch crays on the reef and weed during the whites but you wont hold them in that location.
your catch rate will depend on where your fishing ime & time of the year
let alone the seasonal abundance year to year , this next season should be good !!!
, if you watch the commercials, most of them traditionally fish in close on the whites , then move out deeper after dec /jan ,there till late april , may into winter move back in close to the coast
my best catch months have always been april/may & june in close , the dirtier the better, , you just have to be prepared to watch the weather forecast , bait up and duck and dodge the lows, as well as handle the cold/wet &make sure your pots are heavy for winter swells . put your pots where you cna get at them , change tactics a bit
lots of blokes think the end of summer is time to pack it in ,
if you pot it is the best time to start or continue , especially if your in a high boat/diver traffic area, no offense to divers in general but i have found less intereference with pots in the autuum & winter, diving in dirty cold water isnt nice
as for crays escaping saulty , the trick is if you pull em by hand , pull em steady once you start, dont stop , stopping allows the water momentum behind the upcoming pot to wush up and can flood the odd cray out the neck , pull em steady and lift the neck out of the water at the boat, problem fixed, it isnt many that get lost , but it is hard to watch your cray scoot out the neck and fan out his tail back to the bottom lol
shallows ok, pulling a 38kg. pot from 30+ m. is hard work and to pull them steady without stopping easier said than done ,so i invested in a craypot winch now happy days!
saulty , not sure what the pots I build weight , but there full size pro proto types full steel bottoms & railway plate ballast jarrah frames with pine battens etc, and there heavy , have to be to hold bottom in the swell down south &winter time shallows
me and the deckie , usually pull em together hand over hand , this keep em moving upwards pretty quickly, & yes we have set and pulled em from 30 metres by hand ,
never had a winch , might get one as I get older , but for now this works for us ,
Pro pot usually weigh a minimum of 50-55kg wet for pinies and another 5kg for jarrahs when dry. Stickies depend on how and who has made them but usually 45-60kg.
Pine pots work best for whites and jarrahs and stickies for reds
When they are under water they don't weigh as heavy due to their displacement but that changes as you pull them out of the water and into the boat.
For the whites, set them on the sand about 5-10 metres on the seaward side of a bit of reef, for reds or over the dark of the moon set them on heavy bottom.
To make it easier pulling them by hand , split one side of some 8 inch diameter poly pipe and slip it over the side of you boat for the rope to run over, it cuts the effort needed down by about 50% or thereabouts
.thumbnail.JPG "Just back from Exmouth")
Walfootrot
Posts: 1385
Date Joined: 23/07/12
Yep, you may get them out
Yep, you may get them out deep ( jumbo's ) and a few in close but you will have to wait for the run of the whites to get good numbers.
Thats why I dive :), time to play with the sharks :)
More drum lines, kill the bloody sharks!
big john
Posts: 8764
Date Joined: 20/07/06
Crack
Gonna have a crack with pots for the first time this season. When you talk about the 'whites' run, when is that usually? Is it after a certain moon phase in November etc?
WA based manufacturer and supplier of premium leadhead jigs, fligs, bucktail jigs, 'bulletproof' soft plastic jig heads and XOS bullet jig heads.
Jigs available online in my web store!
Saulty2
Posts: 659
Date Joined: 28/05/10
late nov. early dec.
and wont catch many unless you have a craypot winch , need to bring the pots up with speed otherwise they will float out .....my limited experience has been jumbos will be berried till early January... can see 1 month of envy & then game on.
little johnny
Posts: 5362
Date Joined: 04/12/11
big john
white run normaly around start off December,should be great year for potters and divers,numbers should be up,should never envy anyone old saulty just do it
scotto
Posts: 2472
Date Joined: 21/04/08
divers
divers always do well for the first few months. as the lads have said, when the whites "run" a few weeks before Christmas is when the potters usually go well, and theyre usually in really close by then too, meaning even guys with dinghies can grab a feed.
Saulty, most jumbos I see when diving aren't berried (except around rotto, where there's heaps), and I've never even heard of crays "floating" out of a cray pot, and ive pulled my share.
Saulty2
Posts: 659
Date Joined: 28/05/10
scotto
pots coming up slow &vertical allows crays to walk out through the pot neck..my experience with jumbos has been tar spot & berried so i dont bother till late March -April , and as for you little Johnny yes i do envy because like you keep reminding me i am old & i cant / dont dive
sea-kem
Posts: 15036
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Was spewing last year, we
Was spewing last year, we pulled our pot that was in 22m and there was the biggest fricken jumbo in there I've ever seen but alas she was full of berrys. Mind you there were two half that size that were still huge. Will give that spot a go again this year.
Love the West!
Dhuvinile
Posts: 228
Date Joined: 13/05/12
hahahahahahaha some blokes
hahahahahahaha some blokes have no idea.....
may-october is the best time to fish inside...best pot in the 2 weeks i fished in october last season came up with 26 size on a single day pull. best pot i had in june this year was 21 size on a single day pull with the same pop constantly pulling 10-16 size a day of the same ledge
Walfootrot
Posts: 1385
Date Joined: 23/07/12
You may find the location you
You may find the location you fish is a bit more south, and having fished for them for some 35 years, I can ashore you that most will get their crays when the whites run.
As for your comment about no idea, you sound like one of these. you will get pockets of res reds, but if you follow the whites you will kill it.
More drum lines, kill the bloody sharks!
D_d_001
Posts: 1522
Date Joined: 09/03/13
Dhuvinile: "may-october is
Dhuvinile: "may-october is the best time to fish inside...best pot in the 2 weeks i fished in october last season came up with 26 size on a single day pull."
Have never fished (pots) for lobster b4 so just asking the question as I really have no idea.
didn't last season start November ?
or are you fishing in a different region or something?
Dhuvinile :I just thought the season was closed for most of the timeframe you put in your post....am I missing something?
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
Correct me if I am wrong, I
Correct me if I am wrong, I think last season opened mid October, as it will again this year. But yes most of the period quoted is outside of the western bio region season (15 Oct - 30 Jun I believe)
Fish! HARD!
tiimmbo
Posts: 695
Date Joined: 16/08/09
I dived last week in 2
I dived last week in 2 different spots between 15m to 25m and there were crays everywhere - totally loaded. Can't wait for the 15th.
Gray
Posts: 140
Date Joined: 10/02/11
I potted for the first time
I potted for the first time in years last year.
Little spot in the 30s out of hillarys late november to christmas. 3/4 size pots with no winch but killed it on the whites 20 odd crays in each pot. Mostly whites with the odd buried female thrown in. Pulled the pin when they stopped walking, were still getting half dozen big reds but the pots were getting too danm heavy haha
big john
Posts: 8764
Date Joined: 20/07/06
Awesome
That's good to hear Gray.
WA based manufacturer and supplier of premium leadhead jigs, fligs, bucktail jigs, 'bulletproof' soft plastic jig heads and XOS bullet jig heads.
Jigs available online in my web store!
Dhuvinile
Posts: 228
Date Joined: 13/05/12
D_d_001 & Randall df233 Cray
D_d_001 & Randall df233
Cray season started last season 15th October and finished 30th June.
I know quiet a few of the local professional cray boats and whilst they obviously do very well on the whites because they march i have been told that the best time for them to fish is from may-october due to the fact that the crays are in close, in large numbers. This lowers the running costs of the boat also.
Due to the professionals now fishing Quotas they can fish all year round until the quota allocated to them is full.
The best boat i head of last season in the whites was 1300kg on a single day pull. best boat in the reds was 2 consective days 1200kg and 1360kg on both single day pulls.
Personally i would much rather travel 1NM to get my 24 boat limit of reds per day as opposed to travelling 8-10NM to get my 24 boat limit in the whites. The reason i have to travel so far in the whites is because there is alot of weed where i am based out of opposed to sand which is where you will catch and hold the crays. Yes you will catch crays on the reef and weed during the whites but you wont hold them in that location.
Walfootrot
Posts: 1385
Date Joined: 23/07/12
Just a shame most of its out
Just a shame most of its out of season for us eh?
And the fact that the whites have gone by march, so you would be fishing for the reds anyway?
More drum lines, kill the bloody sharks!
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
All that is fine if one is a
All that is fine if one is a professional licensed cray fisherman.
Fish! HARD!
hezzy
Posts: 1521
Date Joined: 27/11/09
your catch rate will depend
your catch rate will depend on where your fishing ime & time of the year
let alone the seasonal abundance year to year , this next season should be good !!!
, if you watch the commercials, most of them traditionally fish in close on the whites , then move out deeper after dec /jan ,there till late april , may into winter move back in close to the coast
my best catch months have always been april/may & june in close , the dirtier the better, , you just have to be prepared to watch the weather forecast , bait up and duck and dodge the lows, as well as handle the cold/wet &make sure your pots are heavy for winter swells . put your pots where you cna get at them , change tactics a bit
lots of blokes think the end of summer is time to pack it in ,
if you pot it is the best time to start or continue , especially if your in a high boat/diver traffic area, no offense to divers in general but i have found less intereference with pots in the autuum & winter, diving in dirty cold water isnt nice
as for crays escaping saulty , the trick is if you pull em by hand , pull em steady once you start, dont stop , stopping allows the water momentum behind the upcoming pot to wush up and can flood the odd cray out the neck , pull em steady and lift the neck out of the water at the boat, problem fixed, it isnt many that get lost , but it is hard to watch your cray scoot out the neck and fan out his tail back to the bottom lol
get organised and no worries
hezzy
OFW 11
evil flourishes when good men do nothing
Saulty2
Posts: 659
Date Joined: 28/05/10
hezzy
shallows ok, pulling a 38kg. pot from 30+ m. is hard work and to pull them steady without stopping easier said than done ,so i invested in a craypot winch now happy days!
sea-kem
Posts: 15036
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Was up my way mid Aug and
Was up my way mid Aug and there were about 10 pro boats out in the shallows, pots everywhere.
Love the West!
hezzy
Posts: 1521
Date Joined: 27/11/09
saulty , not sure what the
saulty , not sure what the pots I build weight , but there full size pro proto types full steel bottoms & railway plate ballast jarrah frames with pine battens etc, and there heavy , have to be to hold bottom in the swell down south &winter time shallows
me and the deckie , usually pull em together hand over hand , this keep em moving upwards pretty quickly, & yes we have set and pulled em from 30 metres by hand ,
never had a winch , might get one as I get older , but for now this works for us ,
hezzy
OFW 11
evil flourishes when good men do nothing
carnarvonite
Posts: 8673
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Pro pot weight
Pro pot usually weigh a minimum of 50-55kg wet for pinies and another 5kg for jarrahs when dry. Stickies depend on how and who has made them but usually 45-60kg.
Pine pots work best for whites and jarrahs and stickies for reds
When they are under water they don't weigh as heavy due to their displacement but that changes as you pull them out of the water and into the boat.
For the whites, set them on the sand about 5-10 metres on the seaward side of a bit of reef, for reds or over the dark of the moon set them on heavy bottom.
To make it easier pulling them by hand , split one side of some 8 inch diameter poly pipe and slip it over the side of you boat for the rope to run over, it cuts the effort needed down by about 50% or thereabouts
Notorious
Posts: 914
Date Joined: 23/02/12
Cant wait for this season! I
Cant wait for this season! I pulled some nice jumbos last season
I have a spot in 1.9m of water that holds red crays all season so I dont know about their movements etc
https://www.facebook.com/groups/174055815943047/?fref=nf
Mitch88
Posts: 181
Date Joined: 23/09/14
Had a mate diving last week
Had a mate diving last week for a look around.
Plenty of crays around 22m on the back of the 5 out from long point.
If last season is anything to go by youll be sick of eating crays before chrissy.
Anyfishwilldo (not verified)
Posts: 16
Date Joined: 01/01/70
well that sounds promising,
well that sounds promising, I have plastics and I think they were under weighted last year... hoping to pull atleast one cray this year :P